fears of a massive nuclear fallout after an explosion of the fukushima atomic power plant in japan of the reactors roof collapsed in during for work people within twenty kilometers of the plant have been evacuated. the desperate search for survivors meantime says japan's entire defense force mobilized the huge tsunami swept away entire villages and submerged dozens of towns over seven hundred people are confirmed dead but crowd scenes are still unaccounted for. and in other news a rift in the arab league is member states mull over packing a libyan no fly zone and the united in calling for gadhafi to go.

is r t it's no nine pm here in moscow my name is kevin oh in the main news again tonight the world's attention still working on. the day a blast has destroyed part of the fukushima number one nuclear plant in the tsunami hit north evacuations are underway over a twenty kilometer radius amid fears of contamination three people already removed from the area have been exposed to radiation but officials say they show no signs of illness so far after the explosion of radiation level inside the facility was a thousand times higher than normal but authorities say it since decreased it said the blast was caused by a failure in the cooling system while the reactor itself was unaffected an explosion comes after friday's devastating earthquake that was followed by a tsunami and caused scenes of the massive destruction thousands of kilometers

inland of us. seven hundred people are now confirmed dead tonight but it's thought that number could saul dramatically rescuers have reported shocking scenes of devastation when entire villages washed away and towns ravaged by the huge waves. well a possible radiation leak from the fukushima nuclear plant remains the biggest concern tonight ivor bennett is in tokyo for r.t. . in the last twenty four hours there have actually been around a hundred aftershocks or over that in fact a powerful one it was centered around fukushima district in fact measuring six on the magnitude scale so quite a large aftershock and this is well over twenty four hours since the initial earthquake and others say this one was centered and it turned out and the focal shima district which is where the new nuclear reactor explosion took place earlier today when he is

a potential nuclear fallout we have heard since that there was no damage done in that explosion to the reactor itself if there was and then radiation would have been leaking and that was the initial fear in fact when they found cesium and radioactive iodine on the outside of the syllabus he told her there hasn't been any damage in that explosion to the reactor and radiation levels have since decreased and so much so in fact that. the authorities have been able to release some of the pressure inside the reactor because that's still very high indeed and that's still a concern it's still very hot in there as well and they need to release the to release the pressure and may be able to do that since and without affecting the radiation levels in fact they've been dropping the fears of mainly aren't here in turkey or they're with fearing feeling aftershocks that people are out on the streets here but it's not because of that because they're calling their loved ones i'm told. by people here that i've met in the last since i've been here and

everyone's concerned about the people near near these nearly explosion of this nuclear actually concerned now is the spread of radiation there has been evacuations of the twenty kilometer radius around this from a power plant number one where this explosion took place as a precaution because radiation is in the air earlier today levels of radiation there were if you stood out. and for an hour next to the plant then you would have absorbed as much radiation as you would do normally in a year also another part is. under and emerged a state of emergency as well with residents in the vicinity being evacuated to three kilometer radius their being back in one hundred in ten o'clock radius they are being told to stay inside can still radiation. is very prevalent in those areas although for most important thing now for them it is to treat those who have been

exposed to the read radiation so what they're doing now is trying to distribute it and i had seen because that. news is used to treat radiation sickness and then they move on to helping those who have been and still in shelters who have left their houses and this number is in the hundreds of thousands well over two hundred fifty thousand we're hearing now are left of he left homeless and also there are millions still at three million without electricity another one million without water so that's where the next help goes that's this surge step and finally then the rebuilding process begin in towns entire villages completely wiped out so it's a real big struggle for them all the ones in a twenty kilometer radius around the fukushima power plant number one where the explosion took place they have been evacuated and they're now being treated for radiation sickness receiving heidi not that they have got sickness but it just as

a precaution and if need be they're being quarantined also in this at that power plant number two in that same area of focus shima people are being told to stay indoors within that influencer radius not also being told. given some advice should be have been outside and they should cover their face don't try to avoid breathing in any of the radiations they cover their mouth and nose cover up any exposed areas of skin or so when they get inside from coming in from the outside and they should wash and scrub themselves thoroughly and tap water because the fear is that that is also contaminate sets. but is over bennett in tokyo for us tonight will russia says it's increasing energy supplies now to japan following a request from tokyo artie's peter all of us got the details. russia has stepped into the breach with aid. used to draw thirty percent of all of its energy

from nuclear power stations and has been terrible. to the situation in fukushima situation. around the country following the earthquake and tsunami russia has pledged one hundred fifty thousand tonnes of liquid gas to. its trade of coal to the country there's also the possibility of providing electricity directly to japan underwater cable which links the two countries prime minister vladimir putin has said that russia will do everything in its power to help its neighbor to the east. this is a great tragedy for japan corresponding ministries and it is to work out plans for how to help our eastern neighbors we need to do everything to increase supplies of fuel to japan because of a slump in energy generation. second we need to continue monitoring the situation in the russian far east as closely as possible i just talked in the region the

situation there is normal from the point of view of people's housing and radioactivity. the situation must be closely monitored on around the clock. following this explosion at the fukushima plant on saturday there has been concerns that we could see a full scale meltdown that would put radioactive material into the air now the situation is being monitored very very closely in russia's far east this is due to the close proximity but also due to that close proximity there is a risk if there was. material being put into the atmosphere a change in weather in a changing wind could take any respect those perspective nuclear warheads russia caused problems there so that situation is being looked at as it stands at the moment the radiation levels normal in the far east and. russia. that's being looked at as a by russia's nuclear watchdog to make sure that nothing untoward is going on there

to make sure that the people on the ground there are receiving all the correct information they glued to the radios they're glued to their televisions and artie's the country they're going to have a gauge the situation on the ground. where only six hundred miles away from fukushima and residents of the city of used the capital of the region can't believe their eyes they are literally glued to their t.v. screens i wanted tory latest news as these happening so close to their borders well before they were afraid shortly after friday's earthquake and tsunami in japan that there could be a chain reaction which could lead to a natural disaster in heating the society region what they're afraid of now is a risk of radioactive contamination despite were not in immediate vicinity to. six hundred miles is not a lot at all for a radioactive cloud the local margin says ministry keeps coming down people saying the bay should not panic that they should do spend there but we can't as usual

though it's not really a relief people keep calling them it's really hard to get through been trying for more than two hours when we finally could speak to a representative of the ministry is that the only question people keep asking over and over again what preventive measures they should take to avoid consumation and where they could get their personal geiger counters to measure radioactive the levels of radiation now emergency officials say that they will update locals on the latest and that there will be enough time to evacuate if necessary. could reach over there were the situation of the fukushima plant strong worrying parallels with the chernobyl nuclear explosion which remains the world's worst atomic plant disaster it happened twenty five years ago in ukraine but the effects of a contamination are still being felt today. in kiev and explain the similarities. obviously this white smoke coming from the reactor building is the only ovis

resemblance which we can see between the two incidents twenty five years ago chernobyl and at the fukushima power plant now days that's where the similarities and the situations are basically different simply because what caused the what caused them you know the the fallout the trouble was caused by a massive human error what is happening now in japan is of course the result of a natural disaster the earthquake happened which happened on friday and the other big difference and this is a very significant difference between the two events is how the government has been responding to the to the events obviously twenty five years ago the governments of the soviet government kept most of the information secret from the general population in russia as well as from the rest of the world and went on to a massive secret complain to just safeguard this information and this was this is

something which we cannot see today because the japanese government even though we have conflicting reports coming from the islands off what's happening there and we have no certainty of what caused this lost still the japanese government ordered the evacuation of people from the surrounding areas at the fukushima region this didn't happen twenty five years ago when fifty four thousand residents of the town of next to the chernobyl bar plans were kept in the town for more than twenty four hours and this of course caused some damage to them the people were subjected to a great deal of radioactive threat coming from the open reactor of course these mistakes were learned of the mistakes by those made by the soviet government and this is what the japanese government is hopefully trying to avoid right now but. clearly if the situation is in trouble and of fukushima one are different despite

what we can see in the pictures from the japanese television the meltdown itself the nuclear meltdown itself is a very scary thing for all scientists as i've been calling it their worst nightmare ever indeed this down is all about the core of the reactor going into an uncontrollable state and thus causing and usually a chain reaction first and then a powerful steam explosion like it happened in turn not well this is like a rule you know it's trying to control a crazy horse because nobody knows whether you would be able to get it can react to back under control or not this did not have an internal this was a result of a failed experiment when the scientists when the person of the car station tried to lower the output of the reactor and then bring it to a temporary halt when the reactor started behaving in an uncontrollable fashion with some of the personnel pressed the emergency brake button which is as we can call it and just forty nine seconds since the start of the experiment the reactor

exploded and that caused the fallout and the contamination of great areas all along the former u.s.s.r. so obviously as we've been hearing from the japanese authorities right now the reactor states intact is still being damaged according to the authorities and we hopefully think that such contamination as it happened twenty five years ago and your novel would be avoided this time but of course we'll have to wait and see what happens next with all this developing story. even if fingers crossed the we won't see a repeat of japan already struggling of course to cope with the global economic crisis is yet to calculate the financial cost of friday's disaster talk about that further we're joined live by. press for economics at the university of north ingham very good evening to thanks for being on the line with us appreciate it it's clear isn't it the disaster is the country's economy but to what extent do you think. i simply could sit here and use all of you you know

a very terrible situation under five years of crises you can struggle only cobber. crises it's all disaster or sweet yes and it's time to join i'm here and it is clean just going to have it even harder luckily you can use your credit well as you have done a great job in the unit exhausted and in khaybar it's really asked for euthanasia non-communication community to help i'm very pleased. you know of the nuclear power stations is our model they say in the aggregate of taking action to do it but we it's pretty difficult to assess them fine and so in this state housing the impact will be significant but i hope it is you couldn't easily call but we still. know are you dustin and you question so the market obviously the markets fluctuate yes they things got recently back on track but do you think there could be broader ramifications for the global economy i think the economy is going to be taught big

in the short term but it's not going to have. any impact in the rest of the. underworld as in the what would you call it well because most of the concert i it's really comforting i'll define is or crises in particularly the united states and europe in unity is now stable china and india are doing very well in terribly nice day as india were also and so i just because he has said he does this in a moment he's not going to of course and maybe in the long term damage but i guess it could have come at a worse time not that there was ever a good time for this to happen but it couldn't come at a worse time i was saying all the problems in the middle east as well all the problems with all prices going up do you think there is any danger that it could trigger another global financial crisis like the one we witnessed pipe in two thousand and eight. i think because what they may do is you just heard it look so

they were going to read oh it's just going to cost the lives in crises okoye all in other words you know and also the disgusting tippett he's going to essentially these kinds of damaging if we don't know what we call me i'm pretty sure where you're just not going to cause in the new financial crises because all moscow's yes i did say the andy card in question well this is just a. way to go i have been able to cover it so i don't. i don't seem to get these going to be one of the crises was you are ok professor should be our thoughts but they're on tonight in japan and what they witnessing there were thank you for being on the line from the university of nottingham tonight here on r.t. . if you. will remind of the of the main news dominating the headlines again this hour fears of a radiation leak in japan remain tonight after a massive explosion at the fukushima one nuclear plant some two hundred fifty

kilometers north of tokyo it's understood the blast was caused by a failure in the cooling system not the reactor itself which we hear was not damaged officials say radiation levels have fallen since the explosion and there's no immediate danger in the past few hours there has been another earthquake measuring six this time hitting the area where that plant is located earlier the authorities impose an evacuation zone stretching for a radius of twenty kilometers three people who were evacuated from the area have been have been exposed to radiation but officials say they are showing no signs of illness a moment and explosion at the fukushima power plant followed friday's eight point nine magnitude quake which triggered a massive tsunami huge wave spread gover station dozens of kilometers inland over seven hundred people are now confirmed to go to that number is sadly expected to rise significantly in one coastal town authorities say around you nine and

a half hours and people remain unaccounted for. just briefly look at some other news tonight the arab league's member states from maine divided over how to deal with the libyan crisis the health emergency talks on whether to put their weight behind calls for a no fly zone over the troubled country sources say they're likely to back search a move by the u.n. leader's main target also showing support for libya's transitional national council but the stop short of officially recognizing any revenue authority or oblique the e.u. state resolutely committed to calling for colonel gadhafi to step down the confusion and chaos continues in libya meantime amid the constant shifting the balance of power outage a result of voices in the rebel stronghold of benghazi where people there feel that any help set to arrive too late now. to the east the end of dashed in the uprising in eastern libya is like most of its big disappearance young impulsive and

irreverent to the regime think these twenty two year old could never how the gun before let alone the news that that is the love that my father showed me how to use it a few weeks ago i'm ready to die for my country and many in gaza proclaim their readiness to sacrifice their lives for their liberation struggle now these heroic rhetoric is becoming a real prospect as the pro-government forces as closer a bloodbath seems all good and avoidable international deliberations of what to do about believing that rising housing going on for so long that many me point in that these no longer hold that count will come and stand there killing to now on their last hope as the gaddafi forces are closing in on the battlefield the friday prayers in gaza you were the most passionate so far. city of residence turning their palms to the skies it's many hold would have been declared and no fly zone by

now. has more coffins arrive from the front line high spirits have given way to sense of abandonment. just several weeks of encouraging statements from western capitals many here feel deceived i'm sorry to see that mr obama we expect that you are the. liberal looking for liberty for the peoples you look for money first because you got your money first. a little good kill every day everywhere you live in while it is city's arch is a mall belies in their best resources to boost morale this song has become an unofficial human of the rebellious new oh. yes. that's what you. get duffy preying upon his people is just one of many things that local caricaturist have adopted for their visual or fanciful intro to exhibit

like this one and now on display in almost every rebel controlled seat here believe the leader has unexpectedly unleashed unprecedented creativity in his people. as yet there are no signs of people leaving the partially because some i really finding themselves in a catch twenty two situation living now may be seen as betraying the opposition staying for too long may lead to persecution later on it's very hard to say what the balance of forces is how many people are for free how many are against him and indeed whether that situation is changing many people within libya have turned colonel gadhafi is gone because. that it's a repressive government they're turning now following the examples in tunis syria

egypt to seeking freedom of speech for me freedom of organization and wanting a democratic form of government. ironically it was in ghazi that more margaret coffey began his quest for power at forty two years ago a young revolutionary overthrew the king in a bloodless coup it calls for liberation and then to tyranny those who are posting now even younger and demanding the same things but that's where many fear historic parallels might and then we are see been guys the. more the situation in libya and the international reaction from john graham former u.s. diplomat country. where this thing of the arab league's reportedly agreed has made to ask the u.n. to impose a no fly zone over libya giving nato and its allies crucial backing but. the main maybe then the start of a military operation do you think it is the right decision when it strikes would inevitably bring even more death well as a very it's

a difficult decision to let difficult militarily the u.s. and nato. using their work in the six pieces. we've been taking out libyan air defenses would be an act of war which makes it very difficult. if one of the twenty three crash one of the u.s. nato planes crash or libya lucky shot from the libyans. area could be great through the streets like blackhawk down and small years or this is what nato and american leaders are thinking of is a difficult decision militarily would be relatively easy to do. my own feeling is is that they should do it they should take the risk to do it. because it seems to me from what i can hear from down to zero c.n.n. and. that they're living in war planes are an important decisive element and

pushing the rebels back. but that's a personal opinion as well you worked in libya for many years what do you think the mindset is of colonel gadhafi tonight you were there when he and i when the international community calling for him to surrender that message seems to be growing by the day do you think he is listening do you think he's taking it seriously do you think at the end of the day he will step down you know i don't i know your program or so ago i did the first paragraph with or thought of his attitude and behavior haven't really changed he's a very very erratic. and he views himself just not really as the father of his country and the rebels as disobeying. children and he's out to push them to keeps them a lesson and when he says that he will die fighting i'm afraid he absolutely means that so no i don't i don't expect you to give up especially now that apparently

u.s. forces are making some progress definitely don't. enjoy looking at the other side leaders a show of support for libya's transitional national council from earlier on this week as we saw officially recognizing that even if you think international powers should be dealing with this rebel opposition that they are. well i think they should because i know nothing would like us like the world to believe that is simply a a civil war a rebel band trying to take our government i think most of the world sees it more like in egypt where you have a president who people finally rising up and you're the man and i think the world opinion is just me moving in that direction i just really can't get you he's on this so many people are skeptical over the humanitarian concerns i say that inverted commas. and america's intentions in libya do you think the response would

be the same and boil which we jim. a very good question carol and it may not it may not be this is the this is the real world out there it's a tough world and oil supplies are very important i must say they are much more important libyan oil supplies and much more important to the european nations then to america and we don't get much of our oil from libya in europe. so it's a tougher decision how do you. do as you say how does the how do you think briefly this is going to play out in just thirty seconds if you could. well i'll tell you how i hope it doesn't get out i hope it doesn't become another somalia. the libyans are very clear that they want our support but they want us to keep our hands off their revolution and if we intrude too early too clumsy a fashion or intrude in an otherwise fashion then we will lose that where we have

normal libyan people and and then there is be a very visible future with a prolonged civil war and in a lawless state john the great i am really appreciating the programmer from the u.s. diplomats in libya as you were it's much appreciated thank you thank you all for more news on the situation in japan and the your rest of the world check our website our team you're watching r.t. from moscow.

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